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Essay on Vermicomposting is the Red Wiggler

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Vermicomposting is a process in which red wiggler worms (eisenia fetida) decompose organic waste, such as food scraps and newspaper, in order to convert it into a natural nutrient rich fertilizer. Vermicomposter bins are very eco-friendly and are an extremely efficient way to dispose our waste as it slightly eliminates the amount of waste and pollution on earth. Vermicomposting is nature’s organic fertilizer. It also produces a rich nutrient full fertilizer that is much richer than outdoor compost. Vermicomposter bin’s take a small amount of effort to create and maintain and they take up very little space and can be kept indoors where regular composting is very difficult and extremely unpractical. They have also been shown to act as a …show more content…

The life cycle of a red wiggler has several stages including the cocoon formation, the incubation period, the hatchlings, and the clitellum development . The cocoon is a small lemon shaped enclosure in which 4-6 embryonic worms are kept until they hatch. The incubation period is 23 days and the worms will emerge in 2-3 weeks in temperatures of approximately 18-20 degrees Celsius. They start composting as soon as they hatch. After 40-60 days the worms develop a clitellum which signifies their sexual maturity.
The main purpose of this experiments was to observe whether the adding of foods with high acidic levels to the vermicomposter will have an overall impact on the final population of worms in the bin. The research question is how does acidity affect the number of worms in our vermicomposter. The hypothesis is that as the levels of acidity increase the number of worms will decrease as red wiggler worms (eisenia fetida) are very sensitive to acid and as a result the high levels will make them lose or be detrimental to their ability to reproduce at an efficient rate.When the worms are healthy, there will be a larger number of worms because if the acidity is increased then the number of worms will decrease. The results of this experiment may indicate the importance of providing the worms with a low to healthy amount of pH to help improve their development instead of putting them in danger. 2. Methodology The experiment took

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